Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jul
9
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“…We Are Going To Have To Knock Her Out!”
“Sh!t, we’re going to have to knock her out!” -OB to surgery room when he realized her regional anesthesia was not working.
There are 28 comments to this post.
Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Jul 9, 2010 @ 4:54 pm (Quote)
You can stop talking about me in the third person. I’m still awake. This means I can make snide comments to you, because I dislike being objectified. Once I’m under, feel free to go back to whatever you were saying, but I think you can wait a few minutes until then.
Grrrrrrr.
I suppose it beats “natural surgery” (and having had an anaesthesiologist try to tell me that what I was feeling on the right side of my abdomen wasn’t pain, it was “just pressure” – um, no, I can tell the difference, it’s pain, go get the gas, would you? – it is certainly a very vulnerable feeling to be splayed on the table, arms bound in cruciform, with an anaesthesiologist who controls the dose and therefore has control over whether one feels pain and for how long). Still, a little courtesy, puh-leeze?
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While the profanity is a bit unprofessional, at least the OB
1) admitted the woman wasn’t making up her sensation
and
2) reacted strongly because s/he recognized the situation was serious
I would MUCH prefer an OB saying, “Shit! What I was trying to do didn’t work!” than “Oh, you silly little woman–you’re just defective in the head because you think it’s not working when really it’s working just fine.”
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Brittany G. had this to say,
Jul 9, 2010 @ 8:31 pm (Quote)
I must admit, I wouldn’t enjoy hearing this as I was on an operating table. However, out of everything that’s been submitted to this site, this is by far the best thing I’ve seen (other than thoughtful Thursdays! Lol).
I would much rather have the doctor admit something was wrong, and provide a solution than ignore the problem. I could disregard the blatantly unprofessional manner in which he did so. But I’m assuming that since this was submitted there is a background to this comment so it’s much worse than it seems.
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CCindy Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 2:28 am (Quote)
Agreed, better than ignoring the fact that the patient can feel everything and going on with surgery al natural!
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 5:33 am (Quote)
It’s nice to see the admission of error.
I personally get really annoyed when people (especially authority figures) talk about me in the third person, as if I were a child or, worse, an object like a table or a bidet. I would find that a lot more annoying, if I were about to go under the knife, than the profanity. I have lots of friends in the military; I take profanity for granted. Sometimes I find it quite fascinating. There’s an interesting scholarly journal of linguistics and anthropology called _Maledicta_ that comes out quarterly, and is devoted to the study of profanity. I really should subscribe one of these days. It’s hard to find.
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Hmmm.. I think I need to know more to the story. The way I interpret this tiny quote, it’s almost like he was telling his colleagues what was happening, and what his plan was. Or, he was thinking outloud. Yes, he let a 4 letter word slip out, but is that a really huge deal? Obviously the poster was upset about this, but was it what was said, or the situation that was upsetting?
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this one and the next one are mine. I was induced with pitocin and I told the nurses that i didn’t want an epidural and each time i said that the nurse replied ” In a little while you will screaming for one. I usually give new moms to about a 3.” The nurse must have asked me 3 more times if i wanted an epidural and each time i told her no. Later on that night the nurse walked in and said “Your epidural is here.” At that point i was so tired and exhausted and it was right there, i caved in and said ok.I was still a little miffed because they knew my feelings about the epidural and they did not respect my wishes at all. I didn’t really feel the epidural being put in but i remember thinking, i thought it would take the pain away more than this. I kept telling everyone that the epidural wasn’t working. I could still feel the contractions, which were coming right after another with no break in between because the Pitocin was now maxed out. The nurse kept telling me she could tell i was getting pain relief by the look on my face. I was getting mad because i knew what i was feeling and it was EVERYTHING. Another nurse said to me “honey imagine what it would be like without the epidural” At about midnight the doctor came in and told the baby was big and wasn’t moving and i could be in labor for days. After 18 hours maxed out on pitocin, i had only dilated to “maybe” a 3 and this wasn’t fast enough for him i guess. I asked him if it was his wife what he would do and he told me he would tell her to have a c section. As they were wheeling me to the operating room i told them i could feel the medication going down my spine and it was cold. They finally realized that the epidural hadn’t been working this whole time. They had told my husband Krystopher to go scrub up and they would come get him when i was ready. Since the epidural hadn’t worked they decided to do a spinal block. It seemed like it took forever for them to stick all those needles in my spine. When they were done the doctor asked if i could move my feet and legs, and I could. They had me lay down and poked me with toothpicks and asked which leg and if i could feel it. I could. The anesthesiologist was standing behind me and when he found out i wasn’t numb he said, “Shit, we are going to have to knock her out.” I looked at him and said “Shit what!?!? Why did you say shit?” The doc told one of the nurses to get the intubation cart and i busted out crying. I did not want a tube down my throat and i did not want to be knocked out and i was scared. They tied me down to the table as i sobbed and bawled, “I never thought it would be like this.” i kept saying over and over. No one had gone to tell my husband what was going on. Little did i know he was in a panic too. The doc told me to stop crying and just breath as he put the mask over my face. That was the last thing i remember before I was cut open. When i woke up i was in excruciating pain…..They couldn’t give me any pain medication until i woke up from the anesthesia. So yea i was upset about what he said because he scared me! He could have just said, ok this isn’t working so now we are going tro have to try a general.
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Trisha Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 8:24 am (Quote)
That was a very scary situation. But I was right about one thing – you were more upset over the situation and circumstances than the actual comment.
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Lauretta Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 1:34 pm (Quote)
Erin, I am so sorry you had to have that type of experience 
( I cried just reading it.
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Lilly Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 4:44 pm (Quote)
Wow. I would understand the comment a little more if it had been an actual emergency, but it wasn’t. Sounded like he was mad that he had to do a little more work, like ‘oh man, this was supposed to be simple, now I actually have to do some work’. I’m very sorry you went through this, I cried reading what you wrote.
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The WellRounded Mama had this to say,
Jul 10, 2010 @ 12:32 pm (Quote)
It’s good that he recognized that you weren’t getting any pain relief and that something needed to be done, but the way he expressed it could have been a LOT more sensitive, as well as acknowledging your very real distress over the situation. Gen anesthesia cesareans are no fun and have a much rougher recovery….but they are better than a cesarean with inadequate anesthesia.
I’m glad he believed you. Many of us have had the experience of not being believed and the surgery proceeding regardless of feeling.
But that doesn’t mean you have no reason to be upset…..of course you do! I’m so sorry this was so hard and that no one acknowledged that to you.
It doesn’t have to be that way next time, I promise.
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Erin: I’m sorry you had to go through that. I was awake for the first part of my section so I got to see my daughter, but then I heard the words “hysterectomy” and “is the father out of the room?” and they were trying to find another OBs phone number and that was it for me – they’d pulled my uterus inside out and couldn’t get it back in without using general (and a male OBs big hands). It’s scary and they really don’t see you as a person there on the other side of the drape – no one explained anything to me, they just knocked me outs, I was completely in shock (emotional and almost physical) when I woke up two hours later.
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Paige Corbett had this to say,
Jul 10, 2010 @ 1:38 pm (Quote)
I am so sorry you experienced this, it sounds very traumatizing! Some health care providers just do not know how to communicate well in spite of “hearing” you were in pain, this provider did not come close to providing comfort or explaining what was happening in a therapeutic manner.
What a bummer for ANY birth but especially your first. I hope you are healing emotionally and physically. If you need the name of a good birth trauma therapist, contact me via email and I will get several names for you, they can facilitate the process of emotional healing from such a trauma. Believe it or not, such a trauma can have far reaching implications in many aspects of your life.
I hope you are well and enjoying your family-Paige CNM, FNP-C
nurses4nursing@aol.com
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this is the reason why we as women need to educate ourselves and take back birthing our children. was the induction necessary? was there a real medical reason for it? it seems baby wasn’t ready to come out so baby wasn’t coming out, even with the pitocin.
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thank you very much paige! so kind. i was induced because i was a week over due and the CNM said i was having a big baby and we needed to get him out. Yes he did turn our big (10 lbs 3 oz) but knowing what i know now, i wouldnt have been induced
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Ugh, your birth story does sound so scary. I can’t imagine experiencing that kind of fear right before your c-section. I also had a general anesthesia c-section but I had a few hours to digest the information.
However, I had an anesthesiologist who had the most uncomforting demeanor. Not knowing that I would need an emergency c-section, I went into L&D after having dinner. So the big discussion my doctors had was when it would be safe for me to have the surgery so that I wouldn’t aspirate the food in my system. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on the anesthesiologists face and how he kept rubbing his face and looking so concerned. He might as well have said “oh shit.” Some doctors are just better with patients than others.
I’m sorry you had to go through all that.
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Anesthesiologists typically aren’t good with patients. Probably some combination of not dealing with them frequently and picking the specialty so they wouldn’t have to deal with them frequently. It seems to me that if the anesthesiologist in this case had looked Erin in the eye and said, “Your epidural didn’t work, your spinal didn’t work, I’m sorry that we have to put you under general for the birth of your first child, but I will make sure that everything turns out just fine. Now take a minute to compose yourself and then I’ll put the mask over your face and you will wake up in recovery.” Even if he didn’t believe it, even if he was worried you were going to die on him from over dose of anestheia. That is what he should have said. He should have treated you like an adult who handle a bad situation, rather than an a dog who didn’t understand more than sit and stay.
Dear Erin, I’m so sorry you went throught that and have many suggestions for you. Don’t be afraid to have another child. I never did get my VBAC, but my second and third births were still very empowering.
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Oh good heavens! Please tell me that these weren’t the last words the OP heard before she went under….
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